Trailer trucks are conventionally provided with air brakes on the trailer which require connection to the trailer of air lines extending from an air compressor on the truck tractor cab to the brakes at the wheels of the trailer. For this purpose, air hoses extend from cab coupling units known as gladhands to gladhand couplings at their rear or trailer ends. The air lines extending from the brakes of the trailer also end in gladhands at the front of the trailer. The hose end gladhands together with the gladhands of the trailer form fixed coupling units on the forward end of the trailer. A complete gladhand connection is composed of a pair of essentially identical gladhand couplers which conform to an applicable standard developed and promulgated by the Society of Automotive Engineers so that any one gladhand coupler will cooperate with any other gladhand coupler. The face-abutted gladhands fully mate by turning one on the other. The use of gladhand couplers permits the rapid, pneumatic communication to air brakes of the trailer from the pump on the truck cab. The standard gladhand is adapted to serve as a quick connect and disconnect coupling for the two high-pressure air brake hoses which are known as service (signal) and emergency hoses.
Further, trailer trucks are conventionally provided with a multi-conductor electrical cable extending from the truck cab to the trailer to power the electric lamps and other electrical apparatus on the trailer. When the cab is disconnected from the trailer, the electric cable and air hoses must also be disconnected from the trailer. It has been common practice to provide a dead or dummy electrical socket on the rear of the cab for storing and holding the plug carried at the rear end of the electric cable when it is not connected to a trailer, and it is also common to provide gladhand keepers on the back of the cab to hold the gladhands carried at the rear ends of the two air hoses carried by the tractor when those hoses are disconnected from a trailer.
A simpler solution has been provided where a holder having two gladhand keepers and one electrical plug receptacle is mounted on the back of the cab toward the driver's side of the cab. Generally, it is easier to engage the gladhands in the keepers when the operator is positioned in alignment with the plane in which the gladhands are rotated as they are attached to and disconnected from the keepers. To be aligned with the engagement plane of the gladhands in the keepers, a current keeper design requires the operator to be positioned directly behind the cab while storing and releasing the gladhands. Thus, the operator must climb onto the frame extending from the back of the cab. Climbing on the frame behind the cab increases the risk of injury to the operator. If the operator is large enough, it may only be necessary to lean over, or stretch across the frame over the fuel tank and the battery box, but leaning over or stretching across the frame can lead to a loss of footing especially in adverse weather conditions. Thus, for even the large operator, the current gladhand holder design creates a significant risk of injury. At a minimum, location of the operator to the side of the gladhand/keeper engagement plane is ergonomically undesirable, affords poor leverage on the gladhand, and can cause muscle strain.
Further, the current design orients the electric plug vertically. When the tractor is moving and the electric plug is in the receptacle, the cable bounces around and gravity pulls down on the cable thereby bending the cable at the junction between the plug and cable. Because the plug is oriented vertically, the forces of gravity and motion combine to bend the cable up to 180.degree.. Thus, the vertical orientation of the plug has caused cables and their casings to wear at the junction between the plug and the cable, thus requiring replacement. Further disadvantages of a vertical disposition of a stored electrical cable plug in a cab-mounted plug storage receptacle are described below.
With the increasing number of electrical circuits in them, many trailers, particularly those having automatic braking systems, require that two electrical cables be connected to them to adequately power all trailer circuits. Thus, tractor cabs have been modified to provide two electrical umbilical cables to such trailers. Therefore, the current holder designs are insufficient to store the required number of electrical cables and air hoses.
Thus, securely storing all the required electrical cables and air hoses in a convenient manner is desirable to prevent damage to the cables and air hoses, simplify storing the cables and air hoses, and reduce the risk of injury during storage and removal of the cables and air hoses in and from cab-mounted storage devices.